The present invention relates to an agricultural harvesting machine.
Increasingly larger and heavier harvesting machines are being used in modern agriculture. Harvesting machines in particular such as forage harvesters or combine harvesters having large front attachments compress the ground to a considerable extent. The ground compression is dependent in particular on the weight (mass) of the front harvesting attachment and on the ballast weight that may be attached to the rear; the ballast weight, in turn, is dependent on the weight of the front harvesting attachment. Attempts have been made for a long period of time to counteract the considerable ground compression that occurs by using wheels having the largest possible volume, or by using track roller units and greater wheel separation.
From DE 103 27 478 A it is known to equip a self-propelled harvesting machine with a device that may be used to vary the distance between the wheels in order to realize an adjusted distribution of weight onto the drive axles, which makes it possible to adapt to the weight of the particular front attachment that is installed. The disadvantage of this solution is that, despite an increase in the wheel separation that exists when larger track roller units are used, the problem arises—on the front drive axle in particular—of installing the track roller unit without having to access the structure of the working units installed at the front, since the wheel housings that are present on series-production harvesting machines are often not designed to accommodate larger track roller units, due to the space available in the longitudinal direction toward the front harvest attachment that is installed, which is the case with forage harvesters in particular.